"You just see so many people who will lose their lives simply because they�re not paying attention to what�s going on around them. I hope the story that you write, and that The Final Call will publish, will help to wake people up, not just to become aware of something, but to wake them up to the point that they are willing to do something. That�s what�s been lacking, our willingness to do something."
�Alim Muhammad, Nation of Islam minister of health

That charge from Dr. Muhammad, given to a Final Call writer working on our cover story, had an unforgettable ring to it. What he was referring to was not only the AIDS epidemic, but what he felt was a lack of action to save lives.

The problem stems from a spiritual and mental condition that has Blacks acting too slowly to the disease, or not acting at all to protect themselves.

AIDS is a leading killer of young Black men and women and is plaguing Black children in America; the widespread grief caused by the epidemic continues unabated.

AIDS hasn�t gone away, isn�t going away and no cavalry is coming to save our community. Only action will curb the crisis.

So whether you believe AIDS is part of a genocidal conspiracy, fulfillment of prophecy, unfortunate illness�or all of the above�it�s time to act.

One basic thing that can be done is to get tested for HIV. If you don�t know your HIV status, you don�t know enough about AIDS. Worried about the results? Waiting won�t change your status if you are HIV-positive. But not knowing and being HIV positive could prove deadly for someone you love.

Once you discover your HIV status, take the proper action. If you test positive, get help immediately. If you test negative, don�t put yourself in danger by engaging in risky behavior.

But above all, take action�don�t wait, don�t debate, don�t talk. Act!

Africa is reeling under the weight of the epidemic: In Zimbabwe some 1,700 people die from AIDS every week and an estimated 20 percent of its 12.5 million people are HIV-positive. In Ivory Coast, about 10 percent of the sexually active population, some one million people out of a population of six million, are infected with the HIV virus. Nigeria, with 4.1 million of its 108 million infected, is thought to be on the brink of an AIDS explosion. Fourteen percent of Kenya�s 30 million people are HIV-positive and two million Kenyans have AIDS.

The United Nations reported Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, that 11 million children have been left orphaned by AIDS. "The AIDS pandemic has turned sub-Saharan Africa into a killing field, creating an orphan crisis of epic proportions requiring nothing less than an emergency response,�� said the UN AIDS and World Health Organization report. Ninety-five percent of the world�s AIDS orphans are in Africa.

HIV/AIDS has already killed 16 million people worldwide and 33 million others are infected with the virus.

The dawning of the new century holds many challenges for Africa, Black America and the Black Diaspora. AIDS is perhaps the most ominous and physically threatening.

As many people have pointed out, the way the disease has found a root in the Black populace of the world raises serious questions about the origin and the spread of the disease that once was portrayed as a white gay male disease.